


Oath-Sworn

by Nosferatank



Series: Beingverse [5]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Twilight Bell- Freeform, Weird Eldritch Creature Rivalry, a bit of character study, presidential alert: the Beings are fightingggg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29298906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nosferatank/pseuds/Nosferatank
Summary: The Twilight Goat calls Snatcher to retrieve something of his from the Bell. All things considered, their discussions are shockingly polite.Snatcher still gets in the last word, though.
Relationships: Bell Dwellers (A Hat In Time) & Snatcher (A Hat In Time), Snatcher (A Hat In Time) & Twilight Goat (A Hat In Time)
Series: Beingverse [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2060283
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	Oath-Sworn

**Author's Note:**

> I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THE BELL DWELLERS IN SOUL-STRICKEN…. So I’m fixing that. Happens not long post-canon, and if you see some bits reminiscent of Dwellings of the Ancient Gods, well. It is a similar premise, if executed very differently.
> 
> Technically can be read separately, but with the two speaking characters as the major aspect of the au as a whole (Beings), it’s probably best to read Soul-Stricken first.

The word came from Hattie, which came from the Twilight Steward, which came from the voice beyond the Bell. 

“ _I have something of yours._ ”

Which was _infuriating_ \- it pinged at the back of his brain like a spark in a gas-cloud, calling for Snatcher to spill the celestial blood of a rival, a thief, another Being living just across the planet- 

He shook his feathers out, letting that fang-snapping rage simmer beneath the surface. He fixed his mind on whatever it was the Twilight Goat had- and the possibility of a trap, as unlikely as it was- and shoved that itching rivalry in the corner of his mind for later. 

He had to consciously remember he didn’t actually _want_ the Twilight Goat’s territory, for the same reason he didn’t want Vanessa’s once-accursed corner of Omnoc, or the ocean depths south of the forest- it didn’t suit him, and it wasn’t a fight he was sure he could win; much as the thought grated on him, there were creatures on this planet that were stronger than him. And, well… the less said for creatures _outside_ of Earth, the better.

But the prospect of reclaiming something that belonged to him was too tantalizing. So he went. 

In the cover of night, he used Hattie’s teleport-scope to warp directly to the Twilight Bell’s platform. Bracing himself, he rang it.

The world _twisted_ , like a manifold centering on the clapper, celestial smoke and star-fog fading to reveal the Twilight Realm. 

_Every time I come here_ , Snatcher thought grumpily, attempting to smooth his bristling feathers against the feeling of being watched. _It’s because this guy has something that doesn’t belong to him_. “Oi! Goat-Being! Where’s my stuff?”

The stone-glass belfry swirled with steam, as the Twilight Goat stepped before Snatcher, looking very unimpressed despite not having much in the way of a readable face at the moment.

 _ **< I see you were wise enough not to bring your little kin with you. >**_

Snatcher snorted. “We aren’t sharing a body anymore, remember? Her coming here alone would be way too dangerous.”

 _ **< Indeed. Little fleshlings are so very fragile- fleeting as stardust. >**_ And the Goat sounded… mournful, like he _cared_. Like Beings were capable of such things (like Snatcher feared he wasn’t, sometimes). 

_Whatever_. “You said you had something of mine. I’m just here to get it and _leave_.”

 _ **< Gladly. >**_ From below the swirling paws clasped at his front, a third arm spun into existence, holding-

Broken red static, like the touch of a horizon-spirit on a corpse. Faded mask, and dim eyes, and-

Snatcher’s claws cut through the jade-mist fog, reaching for the throat of the rival Being, the one holding one of _his wards_ -

He did not reach the Twilight Goat, though he came close, talons clipping away nebulous strands of his beard. The Twilight Goat- somehow tall enough to brush his horns against the Bell and small enough to easily meet Snatcher’s eyes- fisted a cold paw in Snatcher’s ruff, pinning him down gentle as a bushcat with her kitten.

Snatcher froze.

And then writhed, feathers flaring and honey-locust spines unsheathing from his tail like quills as he wrapped it around the other Being’s throat and _squeezed_ -

 _ **< They are fine, you fool! Take them back to your realm and see them restored! >**_ As Snatcher’s forelimbs contorted impossibly backwards to claw at the Twilight Goat, the other Being continued, exasperated. _**< I do not want your mortals, or your territory. Release me. >**_

Snatcher eased his grip on the Goat, fully seeing the eclipse-red Dweller as they weakly wriggled through the fog to his face. They recoiled, blind, as their mask bumped into him, just below his eye. 

Snatcher eased his tail from around the Twilight Goat’s neck. Put the thorns away. Sat up, sweeping the drifting Dweller closer to him.

 _ **< **_**Thank _you, >_** the Twilight Goat huffed, looking truly annoyed for the first time since Snatcher had met him. _**< For all that you are unbearably young, and used to be mortal, you still manage to exemplify some of the **_**worst _traits of our kind. > _**

“Oh, can it, at least I’m not a doormat,” Snatcher grumbled, tucking his talons away as the red Dweller drunkenly tried to dig into the pinion feathers along his arm.

The Goat’s twilight-colored fur darked to that of the night sky, stars shining even brighter in contrast. _**< This is precisely what I mean, little hunter. If you treat all as a threat, or as prey, or as a rival, then you shall have nothing left to your name but your own failure. >**_ He shook his head, sending galaxies spinning across his fur. _**< I offer this as advice I am long past needing- our kind **_**is _capable of learning, after all; the act of speaking in such a primitive manner as this is proof of that. Most just find it too difficult, or find such matters too small for them. >_**

“I have no intention of remaining static,” Snatcher retorted, even though that’s exactly what he’d been doing for the past three centuries. “And I didn’t come here to be patronized, or to start a fight.” Though the pricking feeling in his hindbrain wouldn’t have minded one. “What happened to make them this way?”

_**< Mmm. Mass is… different here, as you well know from your visit with the moon-child. The ghosts of mortals have none, thus the curvature of space-time allowing them to interact with my realm’s terrain… confuses them. >** _

If they had shut down from the overwhelming nature of what they perceived, it certainly would explain the lack of feedback. He tucked the Dweller under his elbow, keeping it in place. “And you didn’t think to, oh, I don’t know, _send them home_?” Snatcher snarled, puffs of fire spilling from between his fangs.

 _ **< I did not desire to keep them here. They had interacted with the Twilight long enough that they simply… slipped through my fingers, like falling meteorites. >**_ The Twilight Goat frowned, and the eye-like stars dotting his fur squinted. _**< You shall find them in this cluster- I managed to herd them this close to the Bell. >**_

And then he vanished, leaving Snatcher to lash his tail in directionless irritation. But at least the Goat was gone- or at least gone from the foreground. 

Besides. Snatcher had work to do. 

The first Dweller still tucked up against him, Snatcher wove through the pillars of gravity-glass and storm-flickering metal, stopping abruptly at the first bell he came across. 

The other Dweller was wrapped tightly around the bell like a sailor clutching the mast of a storm-tossed ship. Snatcher churred at them- a rolling, throaty purr that was outside the range of most mortal ears. No response. He snapped his fingers in front of their face. 

No response, again. They truly were essentially blind and deaf after being stuck here so long.

They only reacted when he grabbed it, squirming and sparking like that time the alchemy students at university decided to mess with magnets. As uncomfortable as it was holding the red-strung Dweller as they projected their panic wildly, Snatcher held on until they calmed, recognition buzzing in their thoughts. 

: _My Lord?_ : A wordless query, the old title accompanied by associations of it-who-feeds-on-bodies and eyes-ears-nose-whiskers-of-the-forest. Old, very old associations- Subcon Forest as an entity unto itself had been dead for three hundred years, with Snatcher taking over just afterwards. The Dweller must feel like time-sand spinning in a warp-drive, if they were this confused. : _Purple, yellow, death-guardian, fire, cycle?_ :

Right- those had been his colors, both as a human, worn around his shoulders, and as a Being, staining his feathers and glowing in his face. : _Agreement_ : Snatcher pushed, : _Clan-ward, warrior-to-be under me_ :

(It was a lie. None of the Dwellers or minions would ever be old enough to live as warriors under Pryce’s territory. But it was a comforting one- not that this Dweller would notice, considering how addled and seemingly stuck in the past they were.)

: _Relief_ : A mental push, like a child tugging at his feathers. : _Home? Soon?_ :

“Yeah, yeah, we’re going home,” Snatcher muttered, tucking the Dweller in next to the other one. 

Each Dweller he retrieved was similar, though most were softer, quieter. Snatcher did his best to ignore the looming presence of the Goat from every aspect of the Twilight, and failed, his hackles rising with every Dweller he tucked away, right up until the eighth one.

 _ **< There are no more. >**_ The Twilight Goat said-thought-projected, echoing and muffled and sounding like he was whispering in Snatcher’s ear-holes. _**< I shall send you back. >**_

Snatcher wasted no time slithering through the pillars and upside-down staircases and void-plunging waterfalls, coiling tall on the belfry. Flaring his eyes and feathers, Snatcher snarled into the empty space, knowing the Twilight Goat was watching from every surface in the realm. “I may not want your domain, but I swear to you, if you touch something of mine again, I will tear the life out of your form, and then I will eat what remains,” Snatcher threatened, the reverberation of one Being speaking to another in the full spectrum of their species’ not-language chasing his words with the echoes of intent and fire and will-be and was.

 _ **< Begone, >**_ The Goat boomed from beyond the Twilight, but not before Snatcher caught the hint of fear- the undertone of another Being genuinely affected by his threat display. _Good_.

Snatcher had no intention of remaining static, indeed. He was all too aware of the powers that existed beyond his borders, both mortals and Beings, and that most of his power and size would come with age, true. But that would not stop him from getting stronger, to learn and to change and to feed the fire. 

Vanessa was dead, and so were the physical limitations that stunted him so, those first few centuries, as he was penned in by the icy border and content to laze in his hunting grounds like a swamp-gator among submerged roots.

Snatcher had no intent of expanding his domain. He had _all_ the intent of protecting what he cared about, no matter how far away, regardless of distance or location or enemy.

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, we all want Snatcher and Twilight Goat to be friends. But that’s about as likely as sticking two male gerbils in the same container and expecting them to be BBFs. It’s not a personal failing, or a poor reflection of them- just nature. Considering we’re talking about a branch of organisms that are so territorial that their fights pretty much always end in the death of at least one of them and include celestial bodies in the ‘collateral damage’ category, from a Being’s perspective TG and Snatcher are basically bosom-buddies. 
> 
> (And speaking of, yes, both TG and Snatcher are very small and damn young compared to most Beings. A serious, all-out fight would be destructive, yes, but not at ‘boiling the surface of a moon’ destructive, using an example y’all would be familiar with, assuming you’ve read the rest of the au.)
> 
> Anyways. Please know I was thinking of how Jacana bird dads tuck their hatchlings under their wings and carry them around with their legs sticking out every time I mentioned Snatcher tucking a Dweller away.


End file.
